My pond runs all winter, zone 2/3

[callingcolleen1]

Dave, have not "changed" the water in 20 years, very large sedges suck lots in summer, hot dry winds suck water out when we get them, and heating pond in cold winter is like "kettle on stove", lots of stream. Plus when the big "freeze" comes soon, the water needs to be topped up again as lots of water will turn to ice. I keep the bottom pond topped up all winter, once or twice a week I add some more. Have not cleaned my pond ever, too distructive on the pond aquatic life, like my leeches, snails, dragonfly larva and water striders. I only gently net some excess sludge out from pond bottom in sping, and clean the filters. I try to keep everything "in accordance with nature", that was my original plan many years ago and seems to works very well for me. Only time I ever had "pea green" water was 20 years ago, when I started with my first pond.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Oh and some of my fish are over 20 years old, and rarely do I ever find a dead fish. The only dead goldfish I had this year was one smaller plump gold shinny fish that somehow jumped out.... had a grass snake lurking around about the same time. Never lost any Koi, but I did kill one of the smaller Tropical Tin Foil Barbs I had by putting it outside too early this spring, then weather suddenly got cold for a spell, and it died.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Never feed fish after September either.

 

[wendy]

Hi Colleen. So happy to see I found another "Canadian"! We so share such brutal temperatures in the winter. I read you keep your pond running all winter. How may I ask do you do that? Our temperatures are similar and I can't for the life of me see how this can be done. I am wishing I could keep my fishes in the pond all winter. Such a hassle netting them and keeping them inside. How does a pump continue to function in the ice cold water and frozen water. I am interested in your "system" and the equipment you use to allow you to do this. Any suggestions on how I can do this for next winter would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Hello Wendy from *winter*peg*+*+*+. ha ha ha, that's supposed to look like snow

First off, the hoses won't freeze solid if the water is always running. BUT if the filter clogs the pumps, the flow will slow... and if it slows down too much, the hose can freeze solid.

I heat my pond with "cattle trough heater" from Peavey Mart, cost you around 25 dollars. It is 1500 watts and requires a "heavy duty" extension cord rated for that heater. You should plug it into a GFI circuit interrupter, so you don't get electrocuted! Although.... the heater tends to thow the GFI circuit sometimes and then the power can go out in the "middle of the night"!

Then I keep the heater pluggled in seperate from the pond pumps, cause you don't want to risk both pump and heater circuit going off TOGETHER in the middle of the night when it is minus 45!! Lots to consider.....

Then I keep pumps that have filters I know won't clog under the ice all winter, and then worst case scenario, keep extra hoses, pump, heater on standby...... just in case.... power went out one year and the hoses froze completely solid, had to punch hole in ice to reach the pumps hoses and dig them out in the minus 40 and bring them inside in the tub full of hot water to defrost, then reattach to the pump!

It is important to keep the heater where the water flows well, to ensure the water is evenly heated.

There is lots to think about, lots of people have those external filters, and the pump box /skimmer, the water has to be kept running at the right level, and the outside hose can't be used to keep filter box "topped off" so that style filter won't work well...

I built my ponds to winter like the creek, three ponds that flow from "pool to pool" so there is three levels. It flows from the top pond, to the middle pond, to the bottom pond.

If this is your first try at wintering your pond, take your favorite fish inside and see how it goes.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Wendy, forgot to tell you some stuff .... if you are not comfortable leaving you fish outside, you can watch how I do it, will post daily pictures and try to answer your questions.

I also forgot to mention that all my filters are pre-pump filters, some are big round sponge type layers, (forgot the name), will try to get picture next time I clean one out. And I also have other "box type" filters thar also attach before the pump. I try to buy when they have sales.

I also keep a generator on hand just in case of grid power outages. There is lots of checking pond during the winter, like I check the level of water everyday, some days water can be "displaced" by sudden big freezes, as water is turns to ice.

Will type more later, got to go take puppies to park. Have a Nice day Wendy!

 

[wendy]

Thanks Colleen. I have an odd system I think. I have external pump and filter. I have skimmer also that is pumped into the filter and returned via stream/waterfall and back into pond. In the fall with this system I shut down pump and bring it in basement, drain filter and hoses. Bring fish in and let pond freeze. I personally hate winter. I can't stand the cold. I just couldn't imagine being outside in minus 40 weather with a pond problem if something should happen ie: power failure or pump froze up. I have heard somewhere and I can't remember where that a person could throw a de-icer in their pond (or 2) and put a aerator at about the 2 foot depth to keep oxygen in the water for fishes to survive. I don't know if anyone has success doing this in Canada. And also, how does the aerator work at 2 feet depth when I am almost sure the first 2 feet of water will be ice. And the pump for the aerator, would that be a submerged pump in the frozen pond or an external pump outside a pond? Either way it will def be below freezing.

Maybe doing what I do now is the easiest solution. It sure would be nice not to have to net the fish twice a year.

It sounds like you have this whole seasonal transition for your pond down pat. Totally equiped and knowledgeable.

I hope you had a nice visit to the park with your pups!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Wendy, You got the system lots of people here have, and that system requires the water level in the bottom filter / skimmer box to be consistant. In that bottom filter box you probably have a thing that keeps the water at the same level, kind of like the toilet where there is a ball that floats and if the level drops it automatically "refills" to the required level. Is that what your filter system does?

I do things much different than most people. I do it my way, never had a computer till this year, so I got this tablet and discovered that people do most things much different than me. I found my own way of doing my pond many years ago, "took a page out of nature"! I would walk by the creek with my old dog "Lady" twenty two years ago, (before Sadie and the puppies) and noticed how the creek would still flow all year, even though it would look frozen, the water was still flowing under the ice, from deep pool to deep pool. I made my three ponds to flow like the creek, from pond to pond, that way the water does not totally freeze up. The bottom pond water pumps the top pond, and free flows down thru the middle pond, and then to the bottom pond. The bottom pond is te only pond that need to be "topped off" cause it keeps the top two filled.

Anyway, found this "Garden Pond forum" this March?? I think (when I got my first computer) somewhere there, and was happy to tell everybody my "pond story"! I also have another thread under Photography... Ponds In Canada, here on this forum, you can see lots pictures of my yard and pond, from this spring to fall, and I do still "post there" too.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Was also going to "blab" about how I never clean my pond, or do water changes" just clean the filters!

It took me years to balance my pond in "accordance with nature". Some of the steps I took to reach this level of success....

* PLANTS. No pond is ever really a pond without this basic ingredient. Plants "make or break" your pond. Start with plants that are winter hardy to your zone. If you rely on only tropicals, they don't sustain basic pond life (snails, water striders, good bacteria etc) over the winter because they are ripped out of the pond each fall "kicking and screaming with life" either thrown out or stored way in a manner that is not conducive to basic pond life.

Hardy pond plants come back each year, EARLY, like in February and March, They start growing literally under the ice! They help clean the pond very very early in the year, months before tropicals even set foot in my pond!

Choose SEDGES first and foremost, because they are the very very best at "cleaning" the pond. Sedges are any plant with "spear" shaped leaf, such as cattails, irises, rushes, grasses, and the bigger the plant, the more they eat!

Choose a wide selection of different types to help balance your pond. To many floaters are not good, they tend to "smother the pond" and dangerous levels of gas can build up under those thick floaters.

If you have large mature sedges, they can work wonders for your pond!!

Tomorrow... part 2. More on how I never clean pond and why it works..... stay tuned!!

 

[wendy]

Colleen - My skimmer is just an extension to my pond really. The external pump draws water into the skimmer and through piping to the pump where there is a prefilter then to the filter itself and then finally up to the stream and down to the waterfall at the end of the stream and finally spilling back into the pond. The water level in the skimmer is the same as the water level of the pond. All one unit really. Does that make sense? This is my first year with the larger pond with the skimmer and the external pump. I just had this pond done this past April. Prior to that I had my DIY pond that was 500 gallons and my pump and filter were internal. Sitting on the bottom of the pond. That small pond was only about 20 inches deep. No waterfall, no skimmer, just a hole with a internal pump and filter. Fall meant pulling the pump and filter out, cleaning it and storing it indoors. Catching fish and wintering them in my basement in a 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank complete with a DIY undergravel filter and air stones. Fish did well in the basement, but because the basement kept the water at 60 degrees, I had to continue to feed the fish through the winter and that meant cleaning the filter, etc... This new pond however is totally different. 2500 - 3000 gallons. 3 feet deep at the deepest part and I have a shelf along the whole perimeter of the pond that is approx at 1 foot deep. The landscape guy who did this pond was a little unfamiliar with the equipment he sold me and I have returned all of it to him. The pump and filter he installed was really a pool pump and filter with some kind of crazy plastic honeycomb media in it. It never cleaned properly at all. I have always used my own DIY filters in my smaller pond and never had any trouble at all. This winter I am going back to my DIY project to make a bio filter for the pond next year. I have a external pump with a prefilter that I hope to use with my new DIY filter I make. I am hoping everything will work for me in the spring like it should. I had a very bad ponding experience this past year with this crazy filter system he installed. After much frustration I just told him to come get it after Thanksgiving. I use lots of plants in my pond too. However, I always take the plants out and store them in my basement for the winter. I have never left any plants in my pond. This year with my 3 foot depth I did however leave my lilies in the bottom. I have 4 - 16 inch pots with lilies. After reading your posts, I think this may be too many. I also have plants all along my shelves. I have iris, floating heart, pickeral weed, bog bean, canna and I always have floaters too, either water lettuce or floating hyaceinth. I also use alot of parrot feather in the stream itself. 2 years ago I had hornwort too but I had over 100 baby fish that year in my little tiny 500 gallon pond. So no more hornwort for me! Those eggs have way too much hiding space in that plant. This year I had no babies which is fine by me as I have 26 fish in total now. I gave away more than 70 baby goldfish last fall. I notice you speak alot of sedges. I will def get more sedges for next season. I did pot a zebra tail and aquatic mint last year, but both of these plants rotted in the pots in the pond. I planted both of these on the exterior of the pond as well and they did well there. I have always put my plants in pots with clay and placed on the shelves except of course for the lilies that are on the bottom of the pond. I have never put them in the pond bare root. Oh, except for the floaters and hornwort of course those I just let float around. WIth this new deep pond, I was hoping there would be a way to winter my fish in there, but I am doubting it. Our winters here are just mean! Not sure how any pump would function in our -40 temps for weeks on end. Not sure how we humans do it! I hope that answered your question about my skimmer. Thanks again!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes I have seen that pump/Skimmer/ filter setup too, this summer I seen this friend I knew, has a new pond with that type of filter, better than the one I was thinking of.... I have not seen her lately cause she is very sick right now, so I don't know if she is running it all year. I think it should work OK for the winter, with a heater when below minis 10c, that's about what I do, and I have about 3500 gallons too, between the three ponds. I like to keep the pond 3/4 full of ice so that the pond does not evaporate so much during extreme cold, cause when the air temp is minis 30 or more, and the water temp is just around freezing, you get the "kettle in the stove" effect and water is quickly turned to stream.

I have tons of aquatic mint, comes back very nice each year, stays outside and freezes in the ice, with water still running under the ice. The aquatic mint is not potted, runs "loose" in my pond, and it is so fresh in the dead of winter, under the ice, that when you touch the tips from the roots, your whole hand smells nice! It needs to freeze in the ice, preferablly in running water in the pond, or stored dry and keep cool.

Large sedges do best when "cut loose" from pot, as they tend to over grow the pots quick, and my Yellow Flag Iris, that big giant clump that I have that grows over six feet tall, is now a massive root ball that naturally floats in three feed of water, and the fish love too swim under it!

Because my pond is filled with lots of very hungry carnivore dragonfly larva, they eat most of the babies so only the very very "quick and tough" survive. This is good, cause I'm getting too old to make ponds bigger.... but somehow I think I need just one more "extention" to my three connecting ponds......koi in upper two ponds growing "out of control". Can't have too many fish, or too many really large koi, cause that too would disturb the eco system.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Tonight by the pond, with a FLASHLIGHT, just doing my "routine check", surface water now at 34 degrees.
One fat orange goldifsh was eating something in the hornwort tonight.... and it feels cold, minus 7 c.

Fish are hanging under the plants and deep in the water.... no surface ice yet.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Woke up this morning, pond was frozen (about half covered in this ice) temperature outside is minus 10 c right now, surface of pond a zero c. Going to stick to Celsius temperature on this thread cause Fahrenheit confuses me sometimes. You guy in the States will have "figure it out"!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Here what my pond looks like today .... with about 70% ice cover, some ice very thin like glass. Temperature right now minus 7c, going to warm back up tonight, must be Chinook coming, still no heated in pond....

 

[callingcolleen1]

Here is what my pond looks like today .... with about 70% ice cover, some ice very thin like glass. Temperature right now minus 7c, going to warm back up tonight, must be Chinook coming, still no heater in pond....